


Finding Out What We Are

by AquosEvolved



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Making Up, Minor Aqua | Azura/My Unit | Kamui | Corrin, Minor Leon | Leo/Sakura, POV Third Person Limited, Rare Pairings, Reunions, Takumi is awkward, rarepair hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26670805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquosEvolved/pseuds/AquosEvolved
Summary: With her busying herself over helping in the foundation of a new country and him throwing himself into the thick of the reconstruction effort, the two hadn’t spoken in almost a year. Not for a lack of trying, of course. He must have written over two dozen letters in the last ten months, but not so much as a single one of them was ever sent. No, instead they all found a home in a box in the corner of his bedroom. A box of shame filled with letters that he was never satisfied with.
Relationships: Lilith/Takumi (Fire Emblem), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Finding Out What We Are

The grand hall of Castle Primus was a perfect scene of the newly established harmony between Nohr and Hoshido. Nohrian folk music filled the room, backed by a few Hoshidan instruments providing rhythm and harmony. And, at the center of it all, danced the newly crowned King Corrin.

For the last few songs, Takumi had watched him, transfixed. But it wasn’t  _ him _ that he had been watching. No, the one he had been watching was his dance partner. She’d been dancing with him since Azura - who was obviously going to become Corrin’s queen, someday - had allowed her to cut in. None could have guessed her to be out of place at a royal ball. None could have guessed her to be a former stablegirl.

Back when that’s what she was, Takumi already thought Lilith was pretty in her stained apron and well-worn riding boots. At the time, he was too much of a coward to tell her that. That night, even though her gown was simple and modest, she was so beautiful that Takumi didn’t have the words left. And so he continued to watch helplessly from the sidelines.

The song ended, and two broke apart. Lilith began to gesticulate loosely, as she so often did when telling stories. Much to Takumi’s irritation, the crowd around him drowned her out. Whatever it was that she said, Corrin’s laughter rang out clearly over the grand hall.

At the head of the hall, the band began to disperse, headed for the long tables lined with drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Takumi desperately wanted to take advantage of the intermission, to walk right up to Lilith and break almost a year’s worth of ice, but his feet felt like they’d been filled with lead. Just when he felt like he had enough courage to go and strike up a conversation, someone tapped on his shoulder from behind. He whirled around in time to watch Sakura nervously reel her hand back in.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t m-mean to st-startle you.” She squealed. 

Takumi sighed, one hand over his heart and the other waving his sister off. “Don’t worry about it. What’s going on? Did you need something?”

“Not p-particularly. The band’s taking a break, so I decided to come over and-”

The redhead was cut short by a cheerful lilt shamelessly calling out over the crowd. “Sakuraaaa! Wheeerre aaaare yooouu?!” At this, Takumi let out an amused huff.

“I’m h-hiding from Elise…” Sakura admitted, pulling her arms close to her chest and looking down at her feet. “S-so many of our a-allies f-from the w-war are here, and she wants me to talk with them, but I’m…n-nervous.” Leo, with his insufferably self-assured grin, was the first - and only - of their allies that Takumi thought she could be talking about. 

The beige-haired teen looked back out to the dance floor. “I feel the same.” It was at that moment that Lilith turned and caught his eye. He smiled at her nervously. Lilith looked away almost immediately and Takumi’s heart sank. He looked back at his sister. She smiled at him understandingly.

“Y-you never sent a-any of those let-letters you wrote her, d-did you?” Sakura asked.

“No. I didn’t.” Takumi answered after a sigh.

Sakura creased her brow in worry and let out a quiet, understanding hum. “So you’re p-picking up r-right where you l-left off? I don’t th-think I’d be able to d-do that...I’m a-already n-nervous enough about m-meeting P-Prince L-L-” Sakura cut herself off with a peep and buried her quickly reddening face in her hands. 

“F-forget I s-said anything! P-Please!” She begged.

Takumi gently brought a hand to her shoulder. “Hey, easy. It’s not like you told me anything I hadn’t already figured out for myself.” The archer prince tried his hardest to bite back the laugh rising from his chest.

“N-Nii-sama!” Sakura dropped her hands to glare at him, her face even redder than before. Takumi quickly looked away to try to maintain his composure. He couldn’t help but tease her when she got like this. 

As he looked away, he noticed Lilith heading off the dance floor and Princess Camilla taking her place at Corrin’s side. The archer steeled his expression.  _ Now or never. _ He told himself.  _ Might as well give Sakura the push she needs while I’m at it. _

Takumi turned back to his younger sister, leaned in, and whispered, “You can hate me for this later.”  _ But I think you’re going to thank me. _ He added mentally.

“Huh? W-why would I ha-”

Before Sakura could finish her question, Takumi had picked Princess Elise out of the crowd and started waving to get her attention. “Princess Elise! Over here! I found Sakura!” The blonde in question snapped her head in their direction and came rushing over.

“Wh-what are you d-doing?!” The redhead panicked. She tried to hide behind her brother. He stepped out of the way and gave her a gentle push towards the Nohrian princess. 

“Good luck!” He whispered before Princess Elise began to drag her away, chattering at a mile a minute about how she still had time to practice her waltz for when she danced with Prince Leo. Sakura looked back at Takumi with a look of complete and utter betrayal. The laugh he’d been stifling finally escaped him as a snicker.

With that much-needed levity, Takumi swallowed the lump in his throat and turned back to the dance floor. He found Lilith immediately. She was picking her way through the crowd and, from the looks of things, heading out of the room. Where was she going?

His first few steps were shaky but, soon enough, he began to snake through the crowd with the kind of grace that befitted a hunter but was unbecoming of a prince. The various Vallite nobles and visiting dignitaries around him clamored in offense. Entirely singleminded at this point, Takumi paid them no heed.

To his dismay, he quickly found that following a maiden through a ballroom was a lot harder than tracking a stag through a forest. Lilith’s two-toned hair should have been impossible to miss, but he could hardly see over the sea of heads. Trying to find her by her dress wasn’t of much help, either. Sky blue and heather gray. Those were the national colors of Valla so, of course, he had to be  _ surrounded _ by dresses in those colors. Differentiating one from the rest was damn near impossible.

For all his complaining, his hunt was short-lived and successful. It took the Hoshidan prince a minute, at most, to emerge from the crowd. With losing Lilith no longer a concern, Takumi slowed his pace considerably. But without having to concentrate to follow her, his mind was free to once more wander to what he would say to her.

With her busying herself over helping in the foundation of a new country and him throwing himself into the thick of the reconstruction effort, the two hadn’t spoken in almost a year. Not for a lack of trying, of course. He must have written over two dozen letters in the last ten months, but not so much as a single one of them was ever sent. No, instead they all found a home in a box in the corner of his bedroom. A box of shame filled with letters that he was never satisfied with.

Breaking such a long silence would not be easy, but he had to at least try. When Lilith headed out onto a large balcony bathed in the light of the setting sun, Takumi lingered in the shadows of the archway and said the first thing that came to mind.

“Some celebration going on in there, huh?”  _ Smooth, Takumi. _

Let free from her usual braid, Lilith’s blue and red hair fanned around her as she whirled around in surprise. “Takumi!” She gasped. The lack of even so much as a  _ hint _ of excitement in her voice didn’t go unnoticed.

“You, uh...You looked good out there. Have you been taking lessons from Azura? Dancing, I mean.”  _ Oh, you are  _ killing _ it. _ He mentally berated himself.

“What are you doing out here?” Lilith asked, eyebrows knit together and an awkward smile playing across her lips.

“Let me start over.” Takumi said. He sighed and stepped out of the shadows. “It’s good to see you again.”

“It’s...good to see you too.” Lilith murmured, turning back around and leaning on the railing. 

“You look like you’ve been doing well.” Takumi took a few more steps closer, now standing at the center of the balcony.

The young dragon hung her head and sighed. “If it’s all the same to you, can we skip the pleasantries? You never answered my question.” She raised her head and cast a look over her shoulder. “What are you doing out here?”

“I wanted to tell you…” Takumi took a deep breath and looked away, holding it. “...that I missed you.” He looked back and let his breath go.

Lilith pursed her lips and made a  _ pffff _ noise, turning her head back. “Missed me so much that you never replied to any of my letters?”

“I-I…” The Hoshidan prince stammered.

“Missed me so much that you waited until I was alone so you could spare your pride when you said it?”

“Li-”

Lilith rested her left hand on the opposite upper arm. “You  _ hurt _ me, Takumi. You told me that you wanted to find out what I mean to you and then you  _ disappeared _ .”

“I’m sorry…” Takumi muttered.

“W-what?” Lilith turned back to look at him from over her shoulder. The surprise on her face made it evident that an apology wasn’t the response she expected.

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Takumi brushed his bangs back. “I’m sorry that I never wrote back to you! I screwed up!”

“I should have replied to you, and I didn’t! Gods, I had so many people encouraging me, and I  _ still _ never sent anything!” Takumi dropped his head, knotted his fingers through his hair, and started to pace back and forth. “I was too much of a coward to send you any of the letters I wrote, and I’m sorry.”

“T-Takumi-”

“I was so scared of screwing this up that I went ahead and screwed it up, anyway.” Takumi removed his hands from his hair so he could wrap one arm around himself and use the other to bury his face in his hand. “I’m always pushing people away, even when I try not to. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I still did.”

“Takumi…” The archer in question stopped pacing and looked up to find Lilith looking at him with a very vulnerable expression. “What do you mean that you never sent anything?”

Takumi straightened himself, pressed a hand to the back of his neck. He had to fight against the urge to break eye contact yet again. He fought against it with everything he had. “I wrote you so many letters but I never sent a single one of them because none of them were good enough.”

“You’re so patient and helpful and kind, and I’m just…” Takumi removed his hand from his neck to gesture vaguely. “Me. And nothing I wrote was ever good enough for you.”

If his heart beat any harder, it might just have burst out of his chest. He could feel his pulse pound through his entire body. He was breathing hard and the effort he had to put into maintaining eye contact wasn’t helping.

Takumi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and, when he opened them again, he spoke so softly he didn’t even know if Lilith could hear him. “That’s no excuse, though. I’m sorry that I disappeared on you, but I’m hoping that you’ll give me a second chance. Another chance for us to find out what we are.”

“Oh, Takumi…” Lilith’s voice was a ghost of a whisper and she brought up a hand to cover her mouth. The tears that had welled in her eyes spilled over.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so...” Takumi said, deflated. He finally broke eye contact to look down and to his left. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. I’ll leave you alone, now.” His voice quivered.  _ Gods dammit, at least be mature about getting rejected. It’s your own fault. _ Mentally, he was kicking himself. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat but it wouldn’t budge.

He threw a hand up in a halfhearted wave as he turned to head back inside. He hadn’t even taken two steps before a hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

“You not leaving me alone was the only thing I ever wanted.” Lilith said over his shoulder, sniffling. He turned around to find her giving him a watery smile.

“I’d be happy for us to have another chance.” The blue-haired dragon used the back of her hand to brush away tears and smudged mascara - he hadn’t even noticed she was wearing mascara. It was a thin and subtle layer, but he could easily see it now that he knew it was there.

All at once, Takumi’s heart began to beat even faster and his face grew hot. The lump in his throat was still there, but he managed to choke out “Thank you.”

Lilith broke away from him and headed back towards the railing. When he didn’t move, she beckoned him and turned around to lean on the railing once more. Takumi joined her at her left.

The two stood in silence, looking out over the Castle Primus grounds and the enormous lake that opened out before them. The waters shimmered in the setting sun.

A few minutes passed before either of them spoke again. Lilith removed one of her arms from where she rested them on the railing and, her voice mostly even, asked, “Um...Can...can I hold your hand?” Her left hand hung awkwardly in the air, halfway between the railing and where Takumi’s right arm hung loosely at his side.

“S-sure.” He muttered. The heat in his cheeks from earlier returned as he met her halfway.

With only momentary hesitation, Lilith curled her hand around his. His palm was probably slick with sweat, but she didn’t mention it. He turned from the setting sun to smile at her. She closed her eyes and beamed back.

**Author's Note:**

> With a fic posted to Ao3, I guess Lilikumi is officially A Thing™. This originally started out as a crackship with my beta reader but we're now so many levels of headcanons deep that we ship it unironically and wholeheartedly. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, because there's more in the pipeline for these two.


End file.
